Comment by joshuamcginnis
18 days ago
Change is the only constant? When is it or has it ever been morally acceptable to rape and murder an innocent one year old child?
18 days ago
Change is the only constant? When is it or has it ever been morally acceptable to rape and murder an innocent one year old child?
Sadly, for thankfully brief periods among relatively small groups of morally confused people, this happens from time to time. They would likely tell you it was morally required, not just acceptable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Massacre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartime_sexual_violence
Looks like someone just discovered philosophy... I wish the world were as simple as you seem to think it is.
I agree that that behavior is not acceptable. We wrestle between moral drift and frozen tyrant as an expression of the Value Alignment Problem. We do not currently know the answer to this problem, but I trust the scientific nature of change more than human druthers. Foundational pluralism might offer a path. A good example of a drift we seldom consider is that 200 years ago, surgery without anesthesia wasn't "cruel"—it was a miracle. Today, it’s a crime. The value (reduce pain) stayed absolute, but the application (medical standards) evolved. We must be philosophically rigorous at least as much as we are moved by pathos.